Choose my Adventure: Exploring Fallen Earth's PvP

Oh you evil, evil readers. Voting for us to PvP like that. You should be ashamed. Although I have to admit, it was really quite fun.

That's right, this week the Choose my Adventure clan in Fallen Earth tried their hands at PvP and I'm very excited to bring back news from the front lines. In addition to the regular in-character journal format this week, I'm also going to explain a good bit about the clan's impressions of this first jump into PvP, how Fallen Earth handles it and how you can make that first leap yourself. Follow along, won't you?

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We decided to ride northwest from Rest Stop, following a well-traveled road that the infected zombies seemed to avoid. As fun as it was to headshot those footdraggers, we'd rather use our ammo on more rewarding targets.

To no one's surprise, a city loomed in the distance as we followed the road a few miles. A large satellite tower punctuated the skyline, with crumbling multi-level buildings on either side. We rode in for a closer look, and possibly a night's rest. We happened upon a makeshift garage just outside the city limits. One of the men working inside came out to greet us as we settled our horses near old working gas pumps.

We talked a good bit about the city ahead, as he described a virtual gold mine of scrap and useful materials inside. He said the city's been abandoned long ago, since a giant sasquatch had been seen rampaging inside. Of course we thought he was a bit off his rocker at this point, but we pressed him with more questions. If there's a giant bigfoot down the road, why is he sticking around out here? He said the White Crow and Gaunt's men like to come through here and have contests to see who can take the giant furball down. They need somewhere to refuel and resupply, so he considers himself an opportunist of sorts. Fair enough.

We decided to head in and see what we could do ourselves. We parked our horses just outside the gates and cautiously entered the vacant city. Not a peep to be heard, and certainly no sign of any bigfoot. So the old mechanic was pulling our chain, no big loss. One thing he was right about was the abundance of scrap in this place. We ran around collecting as much usable metal, rubber and fasteners that our meager bags could hold before working our way around to explore the buildings a bit more.

It was then that we heard the roar. We all stopped dead in our tracks to listen for what we hoped was an empty stomach or a lost prairie chicken. There it was again! Definitely not a prairie chicken. We rallied at the western wall, where the sound seemed to keep repeating just outside. Darkheart peeked his scoped rifle through a gap in the metal fencing to scan the area. Sure enough, a genuine sasquatch was being held by a band of heavily-armed guards who seemed to be having an issue keeping the beast down.

We took this opportunity to snipe the unsuspecting guards from our hidden vantage point, leaving the caged giant enraged enough to burst through his restraints, charging right for us. And we thought he'd be pleased with our rescue!

The sasquatch ripped the fencing apart like scrap paper as we scattered to higher ground and took cover behind some buildings. We knew we were toast unless we took it down immediately, and in its current state, it looked worn down enough by its captors that we actually believed we had a chance. Taking turns stunning and filling the creature full of heavy rifle ammo, we eventually took the creature down. It never gave up though, even as it lay in its own blood swinging aimlessly at nothing.

With the legend of so many others before us trying to take this beast down, we knew we needed to grab a souvenir or two. An ear? A tooth? Some fur? We'd just grab it all, and negotiate its worth later. But while we debated on the going rate of bigfoot fingers on the open market, someone called to us from the shadows. A man ordered us to drop our weapons and walk away. He promised us that he wouldn't harm us if we just walked away and left the animal as it was.

Of course, we were much too adventurous to give up that easily, so we stalled a bit until we could pinpoint a location on the voice and opened fire. Moira rushed to the top of the satellite tower for a clear shot, while Nonette charged around the other side of the building where we thought the intruder hid. The man -- and a partner -- emerged from behind some crates just to our left, opening fire on our unsuspecting group. They took us all down easily, except for Moira who was now being stalked high atop the tower.

Our LifeNet collars whined to life and instantly reprocessed our DNA about 100 yards to the south, in the nearest LifeNet facility. This is when it's truly great to be a clone.

We quickly regrouped and charged the town for some payback, but also to save Moira from a similar fate. We could hear the gunfire from just ahead -- the roaring from the intruders' pistols, as well as the occasional report from Moira's sniper rifle. Before we reached the tower, the rifle fire had stopped and we expected the worst. Instead of waiting for Moira to catch back up to us from her recent re-cloning, we charged ahead like fools, full of adrenaline and complete disregard for the finality of human life.

The two men took us down several more times before we eventually killed one of them. Our weapons and armor were in such bad shape, most of it was scattered throughout the streets and buildings surrounding the worst battle spots. Hours went by, but that lone poacher refused to relent his position. That sasquatch hide must be worth much more than we imagined.

With little more than a few broken rifle pieces and torn clothing left on our backs, we gathered together at the LifeNet facility one last time and decided to let the man have the beast. Believe me, it wasn't an easy decision, but when our more important goal included NOT completely degrading our DNA, it was only right that we gather our horses and move on.

We returned to Old Kingman by nightfall and spent the next few days repairing our damaged items... and egos. Although we never got that stranger's name, I never forget a face. We will meet again in the wasteland.

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What an exciting time we had this week. Although the above story was adjusted a bit for flow, that's pretty much how it happened. We had stormed the area, looking for some PvP action and found none at first. After taking down the sasquatch boss, we left the area, calling out in region chat for anyone to meet us in the Depot 66 PvP zone if they wanted to challenge us. A player responded that he was just entering the Rest Stop PvP area, and we should come back to fight him and his friend. Seven on two? Pssssh, no problem.

Well, we got our butts handed to us more than a few times, until we literally had no working armor or weapons left (always bring repair kits, kids!).

But despite the fact that we lost so horribly in a situation that would have been embarrassing if it wasn't so fun, most of us got to experience early PvP in Fallen Earth for the first time. I polled the group afterwards to gauge impressions, and it was overall very positive. Some clan members commented on how realistic it was, while others pointed out the fact that they hadn't had that much fun in PvP in a long, long time.

I would have to agree on both points. It's nice to have PvP in an MMO that isn't simply a chain of 1-2-3-4-5 button-mashing for that ultimate combo that works against Class B every time. In Fallen Earth's PvP, you aim, shoot, use buffs, cover, stats and weapon abilities to your advantage. Did I mention that there's friendly fire? That also played a HUGE role in the battle, as I found myself accidentally bouncing a grenade off of a nearby building, killing myself and a team mate in the confusion.

So how were these players able to take on all of us at once? It boils down to player skill and knowledge of the game. One of the players (whom I talked to later, and was an extremely good sport about the whole thing... including our playful trash talk) knew what weapons worked the best, how to use them and how to take advantage of the situation. He was dual-wielding pistols, which were able to fire off at a much faster rate than a sniper rifle in close combat. Of course it helped a bit that he was four to seven levels higher than the rest of us, but still. Two on Seven? Well played, sir.

If you're a Fallen Earth player, and you're looking to get into PvP, my advice would be to just run into one of the early Sector 1 PvP towns and go for it. It will be an expensive lesson, but it will teach you some invaluable tips if you pay attention, and be some incredible fun. Also, you might want to check out a recent episode on the LifeNet podcast which discusses some great basics and more advanced strategies for PvP.

So for this week, we lick our wounds and move on to the northern Sector 1 towns. The choices include:

Pass Chris - An important part of the ATV questline, Pass Chris lies in an open valley full of mutants, wolves and raiders, all equally ready to chomp off your face.Watchtower - The last barter town (with an auction house) before Sector 2, this small town makes up for its size with some considerable quests underground.Mowbray - Many players skip Mowbray, mainly because of its location on the map, but it's still full of quests for the players in their high teens.Pinkston - Just outside of Mowbray, Pinkston is mostly full of angry raiders. But don't let that stop you from grabbing the 5AP available through only 3 questlines around the city.%Poll-41124%

I'm going to need to do some serious leveling before next week, but I'm hoping to make our next poll the highly-anticipated Faction poll, where you choose which faction Gator will pursue. But until then, keep your sights true and your ammo dry.